Hi all,

This is my first post here, so please be kind

I recently purchased an '02 S2000 in March and absolutely love it, by far the best car I've ever owned. Aside from aftermarket wheels (16" mille miglias/tirerack) it is completely stock and looks like it always has been. When I first bought the car it was obviously out of alignment/pulling, so my friend threw it on the rack and aligned it with no issue.

Today I bought a set of Bridgestone RE-11s and put them on the factory wheels. Just to be safe my friend put the car on the rack again and it was already way out of spec. I've put less than 5000 miles on it since the prior alignment. I have driven on some rough roads (I do live in Virginia) but not on a frequent basis. Is this normal for the S2k to need alignment so quickly? If so is there anything I can do to help prevent losing alignment so quickly such as stronger aftermarket control arms?

 

Is he doing a standard toe only alignment? or is he adjusting camber and caster too? I read a lot of people doing alignments often but I don't know if that's out of necessity or being anal

 

Not normal. Sometimes the eccentrics spin in seized torn bushings. Has the car seen road salt in it's previous life?

 

Thank you for the replies. He did a full alignment and it's completely in spec now (camber, caster, toe, whatever else there is that the machine says to align ).

The car only has ~49k on it and has no signs of corrosion or rust, it's been in VA it's whole life too. I'm sure it's seen road salt a few times but the undercarriage looks good. My friend is having me order new tie rods because they're difficult to adjust but everything else should be in good shape.

 

Mine goes out of alignment every time I have it aligned which is like every 6 months. Not bad out of alignment, I can't feel it and no negative tire wear just out of spec. Oh well just get a lifetime alignment and take it in often.

 

everytime you change tires, your alignment changes.

 

Too many techs simply use hand tightening which may be fine on some cars but the S2000 needs to have all torqued down to spec. Mine used to loose alignment on every track day until I had a talk with the service manager about the use of a torque wrench... has been fine since.

 

Thanks, good to know. When I get my alignment done in the next couple of weeks I'll keep this in mind.

 

Er, no it doesn't.

 

Thank you all for your replies. When I first bought the car and the alignment was off it was obvious and the car pulled to the side hard. This time I didn't feel the car pull at all but the specs were still off. I'll keep an eye on the alignment and see what happens.